{"id":4257,"date":"2010-07-26T08:16:12","date_gmt":"2010-07-26T12:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2010-07-26T11:58:39","modified_gmt":"2010-07-26T15:58:39","slug":"bullies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/07\/26\/bullies-2\/","title":{"rendered":"bullies&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div align=\"justify\">&quot;<em>I can only see one gain: the  end of Saddam Hussein, a murderous tyrant.  Had the war not finished him  he would, in all likelihood, have become  another Gadafy or Castro; an  oppressor of his own people but no longer a  threat to the world. <strong>Iraq  was on its knees after a decade of  sanctions<\/strong>.<\/em>&quot;<\/div>\n<div align=\"right\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2008\/mar\/20\/iraq.usa\" target=\"_blank\"><sup>Hans Blix<\/sup><\/a><\/em><\/div>\n<p>                        <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">When I was reading over those documents about the Invasion of Iraq yesterday, many new things occurred to me. It always seems to happen that way:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>We shall not cease from exploration<br \/>                       And the end of our exploring<br \/>                       Will be to arrive where we started<br \/>                       And know the place for the first time.<\/em><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<sub><em><u>Little Gidding<\/u>, T.S. Eliot <\/em><\/sub>    <\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">We didn&#8217;t invade Iraq because Iraq was dangerous. We invaded Iraq <strong><font color=\"#200020\">because it wasn&#8217;t<\/font><\/strong>. Iran was a danger. North Korea was a danger. But not Iraq.<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>I want to be the bully on the block<\/em><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<sub><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harpers.org\/archive\/2002\/10\/0079354\">Colin Powell<\/a> 1992<\/sub><\/em> <\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\"><em>a bully is always a coward<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <sub><em>M.  Edgeworth  Ormond 1817<br \/>               <\/em><\/sub><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">Maybe everyone already knows that. Maybe I&#8217;ve always known it too. But this morning, it feels kind of fresh. Now that I think about it, the bully proverb applies to George Bush, Dick Cheney, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il, etc. <\/div>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<p align=\"justify\">Just as I clicked &quot;Publish,&quot; the email bell rang notifying me that there was a new <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/07\/25\/cheneys-war-on-the-un\/#comment-178264\"><strong>comment<\/strong><\/a> on my musings from yesterday. I think Woody frames my thoughts from this morning in a better way, with a question that I can&#8217;t answer but can sure say something about:<\/p>\n<table width=\"95%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div align=\"justify\">Dr. Blix&rsquo;s words from 2008 impress me as those of a reasonable  man who takes a middle course between the extremes of Bush the Master  Criminal on one hand and Bush the Bumbling Idiot on the other.  I  suspect Blix is very close to the truth.  My distaste (and disgust) for  all things Bush make it hard (read &ldquo;impossible&rdquo;) for me to be anywhere  near objective in assessing that recent past. Even though part of me  demurs violently, I&rsquo;m almost willing to split the difference, as  expressed by the good doctor, so as to be able to move on. But I neither  forgive nor forget.<\/div>\n<p>               <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">Cheney, though, is something else altogether. The very idea of  establishing the US as the earth&rsquo;s sole superpower, so we can grind the  rest of the world into dust &ndash; or not &ndash; simply because it suits us, is an  iconic example of what the word &ldquo;overweening&ldquo; means. Help me out here &ndash;  isn&rsquo;t that precisely why the names of Euripides, Aeschylus &amp;  Sophocles are still known at all to us, because they shouted from their  Attic rooftops a few millennia ago their discovery that pride leads to  destruction? Why is it so hard for our species to learn anything?<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>             <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">Dick Cheney is certainly a prime example for the Proverb:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.<\/em><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<sub>Proverbs 16:18<\/sub><\/em><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">A more modern version would come from the psychoanalysts who attempt to understand Narcissism and people with Narcissistic Personality Disorders. The afflicted require an inflated view of themselves and their own opinions in order to maintain psychic equilibrium. The can&#8217;t be wrong, so they appear prideful and arrogant &#8211; have <em>hubris<\/em>. They can&#8217;t tolerate flaws, and that very intolerance becomes the greatest flaw of all &#8211; the tragic character flaw of Aristotle&#8217;s <em>Poetics<\/em>. Dick Cheney is a classic case by any criteria.<\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\">Others would formulate the motor behind a Dick Cheney as <em>The Will to Power<\/em>, a supposed instinct in man attributed to  <strong>Nietzsche<\/strong> [<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Will_to_Power_%28manuscript%29\"><strong>though that attribution is in question<\/strong><\/a>]. Some feminist writers see it as a male trait &#8211; an innate drive to dominate others.<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">And then there&#8217;s Hegel&#8217;s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Master-slave_dialectic\"><strong>Master\/Slave dialectic<\/strong><\/a>. That certainly has relevance in talking about Dick Cheney. It goes like this:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>A man stands in a field, claiming ownership. A challenger appears and they begin to fight over ownership. There are two possible outcomes. First, one of the men kills the other and becomes the owner [left to wait for the next challenger]. The second outcome is that one of the combatants surrenders, thereby becoming the Slave of the victor [Master].<\/em><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">Hegel&#8217;s point is that the Slave is the winner. The Slave has achieved a level of self-consciousness to realize that he values his life more than the ownership of the field. He has moved away from the primitive&nbsp; attempt to conquer with power and can enter relationships with other Slaves based on commerce, negotiation, and cooperation. The Master remains wedded to power dynamics and can only wait until the next challenger comes along. His fate is sealed and his ultimate demise is assured &#8211; a Bully to the end.     <\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\">So Bush and Cheney went to Iraq and Vanquished the Bully, Saddam Hussein. They actually thought that would be the end of something. &quot;How could we have predicted the Insurgency?&quot; How could they expect anything else? All they did was put a new Bully in place [the U.S.] as a target for every challenger in the Middle East &#8211; and there are lots of them. And we&#8217;re still trying to win? Insanity.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">But beyond musing about Proverbs, Psychoanalysts, and Philosophers, I think the bottom line is <strong><font color=\"#200020\">fear<\/font><\/strong>. Hussein didn&#8217;t let us publicize that he was powerless, because he was <strong><font color=\"#200020\">afraid<\/font><\/strong> Iran would attack him if they knew. Why shouldn&#8217;t they? Hadn&#8217;t he had attacked them when he thought they were weak after their revolution? Why do Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong-il want nuclear weapons? Because we have them and they are <strong><font color=\"#200020\">afraid<\/font><\/strong> of us. They want us to be <strong><font color=\"#200020\">afraid<\/font><\/strong> of them. Why did Bin Laden bomb New York? Because he was <strong><font color=\"#200020\">afraid<\/font><\/strong> of us and wanted us to be <strong><font color=\"#200020\">afraid<\/font><\/strong> of him. We are, so we&#8217;ve spent the last nine years trying to kill him. <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">So back to Woody&#8217;s question, &quot;<strong><font color=\"#200020\">Why is it so hard for our species to learn anything?<\/font><\/strong>&quot; I&#8217;m not willing to see <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Dick Cheney<\/font><\/strong>, <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Osama Bin Laden<\/font><\/strong>, <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Saddam Hussein<\/font><\/strong>, <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad<\/font><\/strong>, or <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Kim Jong-il<\/font><\/strong> as fully representing <strong><font color=\"#200020\">our species<\/font><\/strong>. They are a particular kind of person. They often have Hubris, Narcissism, <em>The Will to Power<\/em>, aspirations to be Masters, act like bullies, and are fear-based to a fault. Left to their own devices, they make a terrible mess of things. In government, we put checks and balances in place to try to rein them in, but they often get the upper hand. <em>Absolute power corrupts absolutely<\/em>, they say. I&#8217;m more impressed that power-mongers are characterologically sick people who corrupt things all by themselves if given the power and the chance. And they always seem to think that the way to deal with their own fears is to scare the hell out of everyone else. Why do we elect them periodically, let them be in charge? I guess we&#8217;re <strong><font color=\"#200020\">afraid<\/font><\/strong> too, and they look strong and fearless. Not true. So back to the bully as coward theme, with their Operation Iraqi&nbsp;<strike> <em>Windbag<\/em>&nbsp;<\/strike> Freedom, Bush and Cheney took a shot at someone they know they could beat [but they couldn&#8217;t even bring that off].<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">Hans Blix is not one of those people &#8211; not a bully, not a coward:<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2010\/jan\/28\/hans-blix-tony-blair-iraq\"><strong>Blair&#8217;s blind faith in intelligence<\/strong><\/a><br \/>  <em><sup>&quot;&#8230; I told Tony Blair it would be absurd if 250,000 troops were to invade Iraq and find no WMD. So it was&#8230;&quot;<\/sup><\/em><br \/>  <strong>guardian.co.uk<\/strong><br \/>   By Hans Blix<br \/>   28 January 2010\t        \t                 <\/div>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">&#8230; But it may be that the spectacular failure of ensuring disarmament by  force, and of introducing democracy by occupation, will work in favour  of a greater use of diplomacy and &quot;soft power&quot;. Justified concerns about  North Korea and Iran have led the US, as well as China, Russia and  European states, to examine what economic and other non-military  inducements they may use to ensure that these two states do not procure  nuclear weapons. <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Washington and Moscow must begin nuclear disarmament.  So long as these nuclear states maintain that these weapons are  indispensable to their security, it is not surprising that others may  think they are useful. What, really, is the alternative: invasion and  occupation, as in Iraq?<\/font><\/strong> &#8230; <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">He says <strong><font color=\"#200020\">we can&#8217;t ask these rogue states to do something we won&#8217;t do ourselves<\/font><\/strong>. Now there&#8217;s a guy I&#8217;m thinking would be someone I&#8217;d like to see representing our species. &#8211; a <em>golden rule<\/em> kind of guy. I&#8217;m looking forward to watching him tomorrow [<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/wp-admin\/..\/index.php\/2010\/07\/25\/coming-tuesday\/\">coming Tuesday&hellip;<\/a><\/strong>]&#8230; <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&quot;I can only see one gain: the end of Saddam Hussein, a murderous tyrant. Had the war not finished him he would, in all likelihood, have become another Gadafy or Castro; an oppressor of his own people but no longer a threat to the world. Iraq was on its knees after a decade of sanctions.&quot; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}